I'm gonna take the CL privilege, and go ahead and respond to a few things here.
First, the internet is not so anonymous anymore. In the beginning you could be who you wanted to be. Not so much anymore. How many people now know you're real name? How many have you befriend on Facebook? How many have you met in real life? Heck, we've even had (and currently have) people who are in relationships the began on this site.
I've made the point in a blog, and in conversations with other bloggers that true anonymity takes FAR more work than "being you" - and once you start lying, you find yourself down a deeper hole than you can dig yourself out of. There are a few EMS Bloggers that have done a good job of keeping themselves unknown - TOTWTYTR is a shining example. The rest are at least known to those of us that associate with them.
As for dating - well... I don't think EMTharmony.com should be rolled out anytime soon, but it's worked out for some.
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Second, how would you like coming to this site for the first time, asking a question that is important to you and receiving an abrasive answer, being told that your training is nothing more than advanced first aid, or that anyone can teach a monkey to do it?
Depends on the person and his/her background. I remember sitting through EMT class thinking, "Wow, this is it? This is all there is to being an EMT? What the hell?"
It's a bit like being the Fat Man in House of God. At some point of time the illusion built up in class needs to be broken down. The question is, how soon and how hard?
There is a right way and a wrong way to do it, and some folks here are better at it than others.
I've been a posting member of this forum since 2004. I've seen many members I liked come and go... and a smaller number have stayed. Our community is better because of ALL of us here. When we get nothing but "n00b" traffic, it gets frusterating - same questions, same attitudes. When it's just the old heads, we argue about EVERYTHING. I'm pretty sure some of you would debate me if the sky was blue or pink... at night.
We need to all work to find that happy medium, where we can be nurting to new members, so that they feel including in our community - but yet when someone says or does something legitimately stupid, they get informed of such errors in a polite way.